Julie Czerneda’s Adventures in Blog Touring

Why, hello fellow bloggers and book reviewers! Please raise your hand if you’ve ever participated in a blog tour. Keep your hand up if you’ve received an e-mail from me about a blog tour I’m putting together (last week, maybe?), or a scifi-month project, or some other “I came up with this great idea at 4am!” project I have in mind that I’m asking/begging you to be a part of. A couple of hands still in the air? Some of you have even planned your own projects, inherited them, or played around with blogging community projects until you found the one that works best for you.

If you raised your hand, thought about raising your hand, or want to raise your hand sometime in the future, this amazing #allthefeels guest post from Julie Czerneda is for you.

#ImNotCryingYouAre

Also? This is just the beginning! Follow #GuardAgainstTheDark on twitter for all the blog tour goodness, while I sit back and relax. 😉

This post is going up during my third official Tour d’Internet, aka that thing authors now do before a book comes out called a “Blog Tour.”

It’s work. A post, be it a short essay like this or an interview, takes time to write (and edit, and let sit for a day or more to be sure it’s good enough, and possibly be shared with a trusted few first to be SURE it’s good enough…etc.). It’s work—and time—for the blogger hosting it as well. There’s formatting, scheduling, emails to anxious authors (is it good enough?), not to mention what comes afterwards. Oh yes. It’s not just about the post. As Michelle Sagara informed me, with some urgency, shortly after my first few blog posts went up, “It’s all about the comments, you know. You need to be there and answer them.”

I did?

I did. And do. However, the presence of comments? Is because the bloggers take more of their time to invite people to come and see the post. They moderate. (I envision the horrors kept from the public commentary section.) Since this is a tour, they even share the blog posts of OTHER BLOGGERS.

Thanks for that, by the way.

It’s the part that makes me feel most at home. That sharing. That joy to be part of a wider event. It reminds me of conventions and fandom. It reminds me of the great community that exists in science fiction, fantasy, and I’m sure horror, though those people are Very Scary. (Not really, some of my dearest friends write horror and don’t at all expect me to read it. Thanks for that too.)

I hadn’t thought, during what becomes a wild and hilarious stint of odd, rarely sequential tasks to promote my new book—most often, by pure chance, at the worst time to be doing anything but writing the NEXT one, especially digressing on the internet—to find blog tours such a joy-filled, inspiring process. Yet it is, because of you. Those who read these things. Who comment. Yes, hopefully you’ll win something, but you’re reading this because you’re willing to give me some of your precious time and attention.

Thanks for that, truly.

But I wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t for my hosts. Bloggers who aren’t paid to host me, in case you wonder, or compensated in any way other than to spend this time together. After spending their own time prepping what you see, don’t forget, not to mention soothing authors and telling them “yes, yes, it’s good enough.”

Andrea, (my current host) I know you won’t mind if I point my virtual finger at three examples of bloggers who consistently exemplify what I’m getting at here, this idea of generosity to authors and joy for our stories. Readers, if you know them already, virtual group hug! If you don’t, I’m delighted to introduce you. By the way, I hope you’ll add your own suggestions to the comments below when done.

I’ve known Mindy as a friend and wonderfully talented author for many years. It was only recently, however, I discovered all she does through her #bookqw. Go check it out! Twitter’s the place, though it spreads. Mindy picks a word, then emails it to any interested author on Monday. On Wednesday, if we’ve something to post, we do! It’s great fun hunting the word of the week. I have a blast digging through books I haven’t mentioned for years—not to mention laughing at myself for the number of ways I may have abused that word. Oops? But the best part is reading everyone else’s quotes. I’ve discovered several authors already, as well as been reminded of my love for existing work. Thanks for that, Mindy. Check it out here: https://www.mindyklasky.com/index.php/for-writers/bookqw/

I’m terrible at finding things to follow online. Well, no. I confess I’m exceptionally good at not finding things to follow online, in order to protect my writing/family time. I don’t use the internet for entertainment. I research, communicate, and jump out again. (Another confession: there was the dreadful day in 2000 and something when I stopped to calculate how many hours I’d allowed FreeCell to take from my life. No thanks for that!)

So I apologize to #RRSciFiMonth for not finding you until one of my blog tours, when I innocently inquired of RinnReads if she’d host one of my posts and she replied with a generous invitation to sign up for the following November event instead. Though daunted, I did just that and found myself part of an astonishing celebration of science fiction, its authors, and readers. Wow! Thanks for that! Check it out here: https://twitter.com/SciFiMonth

Little Red Reviewer

Yes, you, Andrea. Since we first virtually met, you’ve done magic. I’ve only to point to last year’s sneaky “Oh, I’ve got something in mind” blog post to have everyone nodding in agreement. You see, Andrea went out and invited her fellow bloggers to a “Julie Czerneda Appreciation Party.”

These amazing folks talked about my work—in warm, reassuring, insightful detail. If you think such things don’t matter to authors? I was inspired, humble, and oh yes, I cried. It couldn’t have come at a better time, in the midst of launching the most emotional and fraught book of my career. I was counting on my readers’ trust and here it was, offered in the most generous manner possible.

Thanks for that, all of you, from the bottom of my heart. Your fault, Andrea. Magic.

I must also mention Jorie of JorieLovesaStory (www.jorielovesastory.com), one of those involved in that wonderful post. You won’t find more in-depth, passionate, and thoughtful reviews anywhere. How she finds the time and energy to pour so much of herself into each one I don’t know, but I’m humbly grateful. Thanks for that.

So the next time an author announces they are embarking on a Blog Tour, take a moment to think of who’s behind it. People who love what we love. People willing to do something to share that love. We’re the better for them.

Share a blogger you enjoy in the comments below to have a chance to win my stuff.Because that’s why I’m supposed to be here, after all. When I should be writing the next one, not waxing eloquent about the help I’ve had. But I can’t help it.

It’s simply too much fun, doing a Blog Tour, and the bloggers who open their space to authors are too special, not to celebrate together and shout from virtual rooftops:

Thanks for All of That.

About the Series:

The Clan Chronicles is set in a far future where a mutual Trade Pact encourages peaceful commerce among a multitude of alien and Human worlds. The alien Clan, humanoid in appearance, have been living in secrecy and wealth on Human worlds, relying on their innate ability to move through the M’hir and bypass normal space. The Clan bred to increase that power, only to learn its terrible price: females who can’t help but kill prospective mates. Sira di Sarc is the first female of her kind facing that reality. With the help of a Human starship captain, Jason Morgan, himself a talented telepath, Sira must find a morally acceptable solution before it’s too late. But with the Clan exposed, her time is running out. The Stratification trilogy follows Sira’s ancestor, Aryl Sarc, and shows how their power first came to be as well as how the Clan came to live in the Trade Pact. The Trade Pact trilogy is the story of Sira and Morgan, and the trouble facing the Clan. Reunification concludes the series, answering these questions at last. Who are the Clan?
And what will be the fate of all?

About Julie Czerneda

For twenty years, Canadian author/ former biologist Julie E. Czerneda has shared her curiosity about living things through her science fiction, published by DAW Books, NY. Julie’s also written fantasy, the first installments of her Night’s Edge series (DAW) A Turn of LightandA Play of Shadow, winning consecutive Aurora Awards (Canada’s Hugo) for Best English Novel. Julie’s edited/co- edited sixteen anthologies of SF/F, two Aurora winners, the latest being SFWA’s 2017 Nebula Award Showcase. Next out will be an anthology of original stories set in her Clan Chronicles series: Tales from Plexis, out in 2018. Her new SF novel, finale to that series, To Guard Against the Dark, lands in stores October 2017. When not jumping between wonderful blogs, Julie’s at work on something very special: her highly anticipated new Esen novel, Search Image (Fall 2018). Visit www.czerneda.com for more.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end! You deserve a prize! How about two?

DAW books is graciously hosting TWO giveaways as part of the #GuardAgainstTheDark blog tour. Both give away are US and Canada.

I’ve been on the other blog tours and so looking forward to the conclusion of this one…because…the book!! Sira was a very early introduction to my reading of Julie’s books…I was hooked, have stayed hooked and continue to be a great fan!! Other than Julie’s blogs, the only other blogger I read is The Soul-Full Path which is authored by a deeply spiritual friend of mine. (Can’t enter the draw..not US resident :()

I’m afraid I am also one of those people who uses the Internet more for work than play, though I will admit to following things down rabbit holes for far longer than I often expect! So I tend not to find out about things like cool blogs to follow unless someone brings them up (because rabbit holes). So thanks for things like blog tours to remind there are some fun things out there I might be interested in checking out more regularly, and thanks to the bloggers who act as hosts & compilers and writers of wonderful things themselves!

No blog of my own, and LittleRedReviewer is my favorite for finding gems to read! This grandmother’s been reading speculative fiction since I taught myself to read, and the only thing to read at my own grandmother’s house was a big thick book of fairytales. I came rather late to Julie’s works, courtesy of a long wander through a bookstore, in search of something big, thick and interesting to read, with a sigh of despair of finding such. A big trade paperback cover caught my eye … Species Imperative … and I took a chance. Nothing, and no one else got any attention that week and I was IN LOVE with every word; a rare book I’ve read multiple times. That drove me to Clan Chronicles, to fall in love again … and I’m so excited for the release of the last book … and more … Huido and hopefully, his wives 😉 Now, off for a short wait for “Guard …” , and dream of someday reading more of Oversight … the kind of hero everyone needs.

Hi Julie, oh, I bought the Esen books for sure …. and have been hoarding them like a dragon in a cave, on a pile of glittery gems … afraid to “spend them” or they’ll be gone … Now that there’s a new book, perhaps I’ll indulge … And a new sequel to A Play of Shadow on the far horizon …

Thank you for the recommendations of book bloggers to follow. I’ve really loved your blog tours and this has been my first real experience with following a series on a blog tour so I am sad but excited to see this series coming to it’s close.

FTC Stuff

some of the books reviewed here were free ARCs supplied by publishers/authors/other groups. Some of the books here I got from the library. the rest I *gasp!* actually paid for. I'll do my best to let you know what's what.